Windows XP highly vulnerable to malware: Microsoft

Microsoft's Windows XP is more vulnerable to malware than any of the firm's more modern offerings, the company's security intelligence report has confirmed.

According to the report, Windows XP is about twice as like to get infected as any of the more modern operating systems, including Windows Vista and Windows 7.

XP's infection rates in particular jumped dramatically in the first half of 2012, the report said.

According to CBS News, the rise in infection rate was due to the worm family Win32/Dorkbot and the trojan downloader Win32/Pluzoks, and the fact that Microsoft has stopped directly supporting Windows XP with security updates to address such risks, the report added.

One can protect his/her PC from malware by upgrading to Windows 7, or Windows 8, which releases in about a week, the report said.